A Busy Summer – Scott E. Schimmel put his environmental science background and his filmmaking skills to use this summer in Alabama as a Southern Exposure Film Fellow.

The six-week summer fellowship provides a small group of undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to develop their own voices as environmental advocates through nonfiction storytelling. The fellows will produce films intended to raise public awareness about important issues facing Alabama’s environment.

Scott is the fourth DFP student to receive a fellowship since the program’s inception five years ago.

In 2015 Cyclone Pam, one of the largest storms ever recorded, slammed into Vanuatu, leaving a catastrophic trail of destruction in its path. This storm brought major media attention to the plight of small island nations on the frontline of climate change. However, long before Pam hit its shores, Vanuatu was feeling the effects of a climate in transition. Changes in rainfall patterns have led to flooding, drought and crop failure, and the situation is only expected to get worse. For the subsistence farmers of Vanuatu, these changes mean an uncertain future as they struggle to adapt, while keeping their culture and traditions intact.

With the generous support of the Paul K. and Elizabeth Cook Richter Memorial Funds, Scott will be able to travel to The Republic of Vanuatu to produce a short film that tells the story of what is a stake for the people of Vanuatu through one family’s struggle to balance their traditional way of life with their new reality of uncertainty.